New Controversial Jihad Ads to Appear in NYC Subway Stations

A new pro-Israel advertisement is set to make its debut on New York City's subway system next week.

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Rachel Hirshfeld, 20/09/12 13:34

New York subway train

Israel news photo: Flash 90

A new pro-Israel advertisement is set to make its debut on New York City's subway system next week.

“In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man,” the ad reads.

It concludes with the words, “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad,” written in between two Stars of David.

After initially rejecting the ads, then losing a federal court case on First Amendment grounds, the NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Tuesday that the ads are expected to appear at 10 subway stations.

In July, a federal court judge in Manhattan ruled that the authority had violated the First Amendment rights of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the group behind the ad.

The authority had cited the ad’s “demeaning” language in barring its placement.

The group has also purchased ad space in Washington D.C., but the transit authority said that the ads had been “deferred,” citing “a concern for public safety, given current world events.”

Pamela Geller, executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, said in an email to the New York Times that transit officials in Washington were “kowtowing to the threat of jihad terrorism.”

She added that recent events in the Middle East had not given her pause “for a second” about posting the ads.

“I will never cower before violent intimidation, and stop telling the truth because doing so is dangerous,” she said. “Freedom must be vigorously defended.”

The group had also advertised at Metro-North Railroad stations, with posters that cites “deadly Islamic attacks” since Sept. 11 and read, “It’s not Islamophobia, it’s Islamorealism.”

The transportation authority said it did not attempt to block these ads because they did not meet the agency’s threshold for “demeaning” language, as did the ad referring to a “savage.”